Russian officials, over 70,000 residents have left Kherson in recent days

Moscow-appointed authorities have fled the capital of southern Ukraine's Kherson region along with tens of thousands of residents as Ukrainian forces attacked Russia's hold on the city on Thursday, while fighting also intensified in the country's east.

Amid the battles, a senior Russian official warned that Western commercial satellites used for military purposes in support of Ukraine were a "legitimate target for a retaliatory strike."

Ukraine has pushed ahead with an offensive to reclaim the Kherson region and its capital of the same name, which Russian forces captured during the first days of a war now in its ninth month.

More than 70,000 residents from the Kherson city area have evacuated in recent days, the region's Kremlin-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, said on Thursday.

Members of the Russia-backed regional administration were included in the evacuation, the deputy governor, Kirill Stremousov, said.

Ukrainian forces were surrounding Kherson from the west and attacking Russia's foothold on the west bank of the Dnipro River, which divides the region and the country.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces continued to bombard the Donetsk region city of Bakhmut, making slow gains toward the centre.

As the heavy fighting continues, a Russian official warned that the West could become part of the conflict.

The deputy head of Russia's delegation at a United Nations arms control panel, Konstantin Vorontsov, described the use of U.S. and other Western commercial satellites for military purposes during the fighting in Ukraine as "extremely dangerous."

"The quasi-civilian infrastructure could be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike," Vorontsov warned without elaborating.

Vorontsov did not mention any specific satellite companies, though Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX has enabled Starlink internet service in Ukraine.

As they have all month, Russian forces carried out attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure that have caused increasing worry ahead of winter.

A Russian drone attack early Thursday hit an energy facility near the capital, causing a fire, said Kyiv region Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba. He said in a video statement that the latest attacks inflicted "very serious damage."

"The Russians are using drones and missiles to destroy Ukraine's energy system ahead of the winter and terrorize civilians," Kuleba said in televised remarks.